Style Financial

Michele64

4 years ago I got myself into a situation where I owed more than I could pay. I was contacted by Gregory Pennington, a debt management company and I passed all the information to them and they contacted the individual creditors.

My issue is with Style Financial Services (a store card I had). I owed 1,100 pounds and an offer of payment was made and accepted by them. Gregory Pennington advised me that default charges were suspended. 3 and a half years later, I found out that I still owed more than I had done originally. I contacted Gregory Pennington and Style and was told that the interest that was charged by Style when I passed my debt to Gregory Pennington, exceeded the payments I had been making and so the debt had risen instead of reduced. I had paid more in interest charges than I originally owed. I was told by Style twice that charges would then be frozen but that is not the case. GP contacted them and Style refused to freeze interest charges in spite of the fact that since GP took over, not a payment has been missed. This has gone on for 4 years. I argued that they had not sent a statement to show that that payments were not covering the interest charges and they said that they didn't have to. I really am at the end of my tether with this. Style have advised me that because they are a store card, they are not Governed by the Consumer Credit Agreements and therefore, can charge me whatever they want to. I have tried repeatedly to reason with them but they are abrupt and will not enter into negotiations about this. How can I owe so much after making these payments for so long? I now owe pounds 1,050.29 and pay 39.18 per month with interest being charged at pounds 22.44 so only a small amount is coming off the balance. It will take a further 5 years to pay this debt (a total of 9 years). Can anyone please help me with this situation as it does seem unfair. I'm not trying to get out of paying my debt , I have already done that in interest but these charges seem steep by any standards and surely they had some obligation to warn me that the payments were not even covering the interest charges? Rather than waiting for over 3 years and letting me find out myself?

Gale_10

Hello there,

There are things you can do, so don't panic.

First of all, you need to write to the original debtor (and any Debt Collection Agencies) and ask for a CCA, or Consumer Credit Agreement.

Here is a template letter:

Account number - xxxxxxxxxx

This letter in no way acknowledges that I hold a debt with your organisation or any other.

With reference to the above account, I would like the following information provided to me at your earliest convenience.

1. A true copy of the alleged agreement you refer to. This is my right under your obligation to supply a copy of the agreement under the legislation contained within s.78 (1) Consumer Credit Act 1974 (s.77 (1) for fixed sum credit). Your obligation also extends to providing a statement of account. I enclose a £1 postal order in payment of the statutory fee, PO Serial Number XXXXXXXX.

3. A statement of account

I would request that this data is provided to myself within the next 12+2 days, if you are unable to provide this data then I must insist that you cease chasing this unsubstantiated debt.

Now, if the they don't send you one of these, and make sure it is a correctly signed (by you) consumer credit agreement - they often send applications to try and trick you, if they don't send you one, the debt is unenforceable. It doesn't disappear, but they cannot make you pay it unless they go to court. Any judge in the land would take a VERY dim view of no consumer credit agreement, so these companies don't bother taking it that far. Send a postal order for the one pound, make sure you send it *signed for* so you know they have it, and do not sign the letter, just print your name. Some people have been known to forge signatures!

Secondly, you can reclaim their charges. If the charges are disproportionate then they are reclaimable. You need to follow the steps exactly as Martin sets out on his page on reclaiming from credit cards. Just send a £10 postal order, and ask for a copy of your charges, as per Martins page, and when you find out all the charges, follow the step by step instructions, exactly as Martin says, and you will get the charges back. I reclaimed my charges back from Barclaycard, and got them all refunded plus interest without going to court.

It sounds like this company have been bullying you for a long time, it sounds like you should stand up to them and exercise your rights as a consumer!

I hope that helps, and please keep us posted as to what goes on. We will help you when you get replies to your letters.

Take care

Gale

Gale_10

Hello again,

Also, perhaps it might be a good idea to contact payplan, or cccs, the numbers are at the top of the page, they are free charities that will help you with your debt, and sort out DMPs for you at no cost to you.

Hope this helps,

Gale

iamstacie

Hi, Can you get out of your agreement with Gregory Pennington and go with someone with a bit of weight behind them & can do more for you free of charge like CCCS or Payplan etc? Gregory Pennington are an absolute bunch of cowboys, I had an interview there once and couldn't believe some of the stuff the MD said about their customers. GP are making a fortune from you so its in their best interests that the interest on your account isnt frozen so they can keep getting their fees from you.

Most companies will freeze the interest (if even for a little while) if you ring and tell them you're dealing with the CCCS

http://www.cccs.co.uk/

Michele64

Thanks. Yes I'm getting rid of GP, they've done nothing for me and if they'd done their job properly this wouldn't have happened. I'd like to avoid a CCJ if possible but if I have to go to Court to defend this claim then so be it. With regard to charges, I'm not sure that I can claim these back because I understood that store cards were different from credit cards or banks? I will read Martin's posting regarding this though. Once again, many thanks for the advice and I'll update once I've heard from Style. I can't understand why they're taking this attitude as all the other creditors were fine. Some continued to add interest at a reasonable rate and others froze it but at least they kept me informed all the way.

Michele64

Hello,

Today I received a response from CCCS - shown below. It looks as though whatever happens I can't avoid Court so here goes. In the first instance, you are bound by the terms of such charges if your agreement stipulates this. However, you may have grounds for making a formal complaint against GP and Style if neither party made you aware that such interest & charges were still being applied or indeed if you were wrongly told that interest was not accruing when indeed it was. It would appear there is a total lack of transparency surrounding your account.

I would advise you to apply for a Time Order. This will stop any further interest & charges accruing on the account and allow a determined period of repayment and eventual clearing of the amount owed. The court will need to agree this and it will cost you for the application. You can use either a N244 (general form) or N440 which is for Time orders specifically.

You can obtain either form from the courts website http://www.hmcourts-service.gov.uk/cms/index.htm

As far as the complaint is concerned, can I suggest that you write a letter of complaint to both GP and Style regarding the promises made about the cessation of interest for from Style and, the lack of management by GP and for also advising that the charges were suspended. You should send the written complaint by recorded delivery and keep proof of posting and a copy of the letters. They have up to 8 weeks to respond. If 8 weeks has then elapsed or you receive a final response, you can then escalate the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/

RAS

Michele

Can you also talk to CCCS about moving your DMP to them, ASAP.

RAS